GENEVA — Teams from the identical nation could have extra possibilities to play one another when the Champions League and different European membership competitions are revamped subsequent 12 months, UEFA mentioned Monday.
There shall be an open draw for the spherical of 16 with out so-called “country protection” and two groups from a high-ranked nation may additionally face one another within the new league stage “to avoid a deadlock in the draw,” UEFA acknowledged.
Currently, groups from the identical nation are all the time separated within the conventional group stage and can’t meet within the knockout section till the quarterfinals.
That modifications within the 2024-25 season when the Champions League, Europa League and re-branded Conference League every transfer to a 36-team format with a single standings desk.
Teams within the Champions League and Europa League will play eight video games every within the league section, which can finish in January. Conference League groups could have six rounds ending in December.
The further video games, drawn from 4 seeding pots every containing 9 groups, means nation safety can’t be ensured for probably the most profitable nations.
“Exceptionally, a maximum of one match per club against another club from the same association may be allowed for associations with four or more clubs in the league phase,” UEFA mentioned in a letter to European soccer officers printed Monday.
Other modifications to the standard look of UEFA membership competitions had been confirmed within the letter.
Teams who make the knockout rounds shall be drawn right into a seeded bracket – like a tennis event, separating the Nos. 1 and a pair of seeds till the ultimate – as a substitute of the present system of creating a recent draw for every spherical.
UEFA mentioned this was “to strengthen the synergy between league and knockout phases and to provide more sporting incentives to the league phase.”
Teams ending prime of the 36-team standings would be the No. 1 seed and people positioned second to eighth shall be seeded accordingly within the spherical of 16.
Teams positioned ninth to sixteenth shall be seeded within the new knockout playoff spherical in February, drawn towards unseeded groups inserting seventeenth to twenty fourth.
The new codecs will create extra midweek video games for UEFA and the Champions League is ready to start out with an unique week enjoying from Tuesday to Thursday, Sept. 17-19, 2024.
One week later, the Europa League is scheduled to have its unique season launch on Sept. 25-26. The Conference League will begin on Oct. 3 and have an unique match night time on Dec. 19.
The league phases within the prime two tiers will proceed into January with the Champions League having its seventh spherical on Jan. 21-22 and all groups in motion for the decisive eighth spherical on Jan. 29.
Another tweak to the Champions League in 2024-25 pertains to which workforce will get lifted out of the qualifying rounds as much as direct entry when the competitors is received by a workforce that already earned its place subsequent season by way of its home league place.
Manchester City had already secured the Premier League title when it received the Champions League ultimate final month, that means the group-stage place reserved for the title holder went the nation with the best rating based mostly on UEFA competitors outcomes which didn’t have a direct entry. That was Ukraine and Shakhtar Donetsk bought the place.
Next 12 months, in an analogous situation, UEFA has determined that direct entry will go to the highest-ranked home champion within the qualifying rounds, somewhat than to a rustic. That may nonetheless reward Shakhtar, or a workforce like Dinamo Zagreb or Slavia Prague.
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